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Driving a standard Hexapod

This project is about creating everything for driving a 18 DOF standard Hexapod Kit with custom features

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You can find on famous Chinese online shops the same standard Hexapod kit frame, at low price but with few or zero details on building, limited servo support and a specific electronic board with PS2 controler support. This kit is great for the price but badly documented, and not easy to manage if you which to do the electronic stuff yourself.
So I'm starting to document the project I have : create, from this standard kit, the cheapest and easiest hexapod possible.
I will not try to build the mechanical part myself, I don't think it will be cheaper than buying a full metal kit. But I will avoid all other standard features and I will try to create something fun for everything else.

I will also create documentation about building the kit, and what you can buy to make it a full semi-autonomous robot (yep, I want to make it able to do some basic stuff by itself)

(This project is just starting)

What I expect to use for my first release :

  • Standard Hexapod frame kit => ~ 60€ with servo Horns
  • Standard MG995 servo (18 / 20) => Not the standard servo you usually find for this kind of kit but it is actually compliant. Not sure if it will be enough, but I want to try with this servo model. You can find them at 2.70 € for example, so frame + servos can be bought for ~ 120€ (2 time less than standard kit
  • ESP8266 or ESP32 as MCU. I'm a big fan of ESP8266 and I want to try to work with ESP32. We will see where it will go. Maybe I will try to use instead a Rpi W Zero if I need more CPU power. In all case, the hexapod will have Wifi
  • Servo drivers => I will start with standard I2c 16xPWM board (x2) 
  • Power management => Working on it. I'm a total newbie in electronic (even if I studied it years ago, shame on me :-/) and I'm still looking for a solution. I wanted to use some basic C type bateries but as the servos can use almost 1A each at full load, it's too much power for alkalines batteries. So I will use LiPo, but I'm still looking for a something that can go inside the hexapod body.  I will probably use 2*3.3 or 1*7.4 battery, so I will need 1 or 2 bulk adapters able to provide 6V for servos with a lot of amps + one small 5V Bulk adapter for the MCU
  • Sensors : At least 2 HS (HC-SR04) sensors, 1 PIR, probably 1 camera (starting with a cheap serial camera) 1 Gyroscope
  • Probably also 1 buzzer and 1 LCD Screen. I like to put screens everywhere :-), you don't ?
  • Some space for extensions ! 

Of course it will be compliant with my Wifi remote (see other projects)

The idea for me is to build first a driving electronic with cheap and standard boards / modules, and then to try to create my own PCB. I have not created any PCB yet so this project will also be a training for me.

Electronic here is standard, because I'm not an electronic guy for now. But I'm a programmer so I will work more on code. Everything will be published on Github

  • Ping again ...

    Emmanuel Lecomte03/28/2019 at 22:06 0 comments

    So, yeah, I don't have time for all of this ... 

    But at least I have fixed a solution for power management : a single "drone" 7.4v NIMH battery, with a 6v / 20A regulator. I looked for many solutions, I think it's the simplest / cheapest compliant one for know. We will see...

    I know also that I will start to drive it with an ESP 32 MCU (TTGO D32 Mini boad) for the first version. It will be probably a more advanced SBC for the final version (not necessarily a rapsberryPi)

    I cannot promise to work on it in the next few months, because I have no time, and hundreds of projects to work on (yep, I started too much things in the same time) ...

  • Ping...

    Emmanuel Lecomte11/04/2018 at 22:15 0 comments

    This project is not dead, but I didn't had time for it yet. I wanted to work on other "smaller" projects first... But now I'm ready to work à little bit on it. 

    I'm still not sure of the power source I will use, probably a pair of drone batteries. 

    What is sure is that I will make a prototype using standard modules from aliexpress 1st, and then I will create a dedicated pcb with everything required on it. And it will became my most advanced project so far. 

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